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Special School board issue
Assiniboine
Sioux
School board elections will be held across the reservation tomorrow, April 2. Polls open in each community at 12 noon and close at 8 p.m.
This year, there has been recent unrest between the school boards and the communities of Brockton and Poplar. Community and student protest shut down the
Brockton school for 2 days In February and the 3-member school board resigned. At Poplar, the community has been meeting with the school board in an attempt to resolve the high number of suspensions.
At Wolf Point, there Is one highly qualified Indian candidate In the running for one of
two positions opening within the Wolf Point school district.
In Frazer, all appears to be well as there are only two candidates running for two openings.
In the special Issue, the Wotanin hopes to present the readers, who are also voters In the school elections, a better view of the candidates they will be voting for tomorrow.
APRIL 1.1985
SPECIAL ISSUE
"Crisis" time at Poplar
Indian Students on reservation
POPLAR-Education for Indian students in the Poplar School system has reached a "crisis" point, according to Poplar Community Chairman Ray White, and now is the time to do something about It.
In response to this "crisis", the Poplar Indian Community Organization has gone on record to officially support two Indian candidates for the two school board seats that are up for election tomorrow, April 2. From a field of six persons nominated at large during an emergency March 6 Poplar Community meeting, Indian businessman Eugene Culbertson and Ft. Peck Community College President Dr. James Shanley were selected by secret ballot as the candidates. Both are tribal members.
The Poplar Community, in a controversial move, requested and
received $350.00 from the Ft. Peck Tribes for campaign costs for the two candidates Culbertson and Shanley. According to White, the funds will not be used to promote the other two Indian candidates running for Poplar school board. The Tribal Executive Board left the decision on how to spend the money at the discretion of the Poplar Community Organization, who made the formal request for the funds. White said a list on how the money was spent will be provided.
A special community meeting and rally for the candidates will be held tonight, April 1, at the Poplar Activity Center at 7 p.m.
Rides will be provided to the polls on April 2. Polls open at 12 noon to 8 p.m. at the Poplar High School. Rides will be provided to the polls if 768-5595 and 5127 is called.
According to a list of registered voters provided by the Roosevelt County Clerk and Recorders Office, about 467 Indian persons are
registered to vote in the Poplar school board election.
With Indian students making up 80 percent of Poplar School system and with three of the five school board seats already filled with non-Indian members, Poplar Com-
munity wants to see the two seats that are up for election to be filled by Indian people. "We need an advocate on the board that understands the situation of Indian students and will try to keep them
(Page 2 - Crisis)
Suspension on the rise
There has been an average of 12 cases a month in which kids are suspended or expelled, and "that's a lot of kids," Tribal Juvenile Judge Tom McAnally said. "From a judge's point, I'm hearing a lot more out-of-school truancies this year than any other time," McAnally said.
The Juvenile Department is getting daily reports on kids suspended or in In-School Suspension (ISS), he said. Under the Tribes' Law and Order Code, if a student is suspended or expelled, the Court must be notified, McAnally said.
The Tribes Health, Education and Welfare Committee, after hearing an oral report from Judge McAnally, sent him and Committee chairman Ken Smoker, Jr. to the Feb. 25 school board meeting to ask cooperation to keep the kids in school rather than to "kick them out," said McAnally, who has been to almost every school board meeting in the last two or three months regarding expulsions. Since then, "The majority of the children are kept in school," he said.
There are 154 students in out-of-school suspension this year in Poplar's Middle School, which is grades 5th to 8th, McAnally said. Broken down to grade levels, there were eight 5th-graders, twenty-two 6th-graders, seventeen 7th-graders, and sixteen 8th-graders. Fourteen of these students were
suspended four or more times, he said. The statistics are from the beginning of this year to March 5, 1985, according to McAnally.
In statistics provided by the Poplar School's new Home-School Coordinator Marshelle Lambert, there has been only one expulsion from Poplar High School since the beginning of the school year. There were over 60 students suspended for two to three days since October, 1984, she stated. A student must be suspended three times before being expelled, according to the School's Attendance and Discipline Policy.
One good thing that has happened from the meetings, McAnally said, is that the Poplar Schools hired the second home-school coordinator, Mrs. Lambert, a former tribal juvenile worker, was hired to work with the Middle and High School students, Indian and non-Indian that do not show up for school. "This has helped," Judge McAnally said.
The TribaJ Juvenile.Ow* v,:'1 Ko filing a complaint against parents in school expulsion cases in which the parents are found to be at fault, McAnally reported.
The complaint will be filed for violation of the Tribal Code, which states an Indian family must send their children to school until they reach 16 years of age, and this is a family responsibility that has to be lived up to, he said.
(NOTE: The following article was produced by the Ft. Peck Community College in October, 1984.)
The statistics on the K-12 population on the Fort Peck Reservation indicate that our school systems have some serious problems. Reservation-wide, there are only 36 senior Indian students although there are 154 students in the ninth grade. If the school populations have been fairly constant, that means that only 23% of the Indian students that start high school make it to their senior year with even less probably graduating.
In Brockton 21% make it to the 12th grade; in Poplar, 26%; in Wolf Point, 22%; in Frazer, 17.6%. The greatest decline in numbers takes place between the 9th and 11th grades or between the Freshman and Junior year in high school.
These figures are somewhat misleading because a number of students attend boarding schools each year. During the 1984/85 school year, the Bureau of Indian Affairs reports that 42 high school students and 25 elementary students went away to Boarding school at Flandreau, Chemawa, Wahpeton and Riverside Boarding Schools.
(Page 3 � Statistics
FORT PECK TRIBES K-12 POPULATION
The following Is the compilation of data collected by the Fort Peck Community College on the K-12 student population Is public schools on the Fort Peck Asslnlbolne/Sloux Reservation.
STUDENTS BROCKTON POPLAB KINDERGARTEN
WOLF POINT FRAZER TOTA�
'Indian 10
Non-Indian 0
Grades 1-8
Indian 82
Non-Indian 4
Grades 9-12
Indian 48
Non-Indian 0
TOTAL SCHOOL 144
POPULATION
Seniors
Indian 4
Non-Indian 0
1984 Graduating Class Indian 6
Non-Indian 0
No. of Teachers
Indian 2
Non-Indian 16
Other Professionals Indian 1
Non-Indian 3
Teacher Aides
Indian 1
Non-Indian 1
69 13
481
105
134
60
86?
17 13
19
7
4
54
15 4
56 48
294 337
101 192 1028
12 51
12 43
2 44
3 15
96 0
50 0 165
3 0
3 20
154 61
�
953 446
333 252 2199
36 64
40
50
11 138
7 30
22 12
('Indian identification is based upon title IV identification and is not separated by blood quantum or tribal membership.)
Smallest school, most candidates
Indian Candidate is role model
NANCY DUMONT, the only Indian school board candidate in Wolf Point, has a solid background in community development, education and administration. Her productive career could serve as a role model for Indian students in that there are no limits to what one can achieve with education.
"I am a firm believer in education," Ms. Dumont said. Raised on the Ft. Peck Reservation, she said her parents instilled in her the importance of getting an education. Her parents have done a very commendable job - Ms. Dumont, afterworking in secretarial positions for 14 years in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, went on to earn a Masters Degree from the academically prestigious University of Chicago in 1982.
Ms. Dumont is presently employed by the Ft. Peck Tribes as director of Education and Career Opportunity Services, a program she helped develop that serves people of all ages who are interested and need assistance in continuing their education and furthering their careers. Formerly a state funded program that was called Talent Search, ECOS is now fully tribally funded, administers tribal education grants, assists people in processing the necessary paperwork to get into any type of educational facility, as well as providing career counseling.
Ms. Dumont, who has served on educational boards and councils too numerous to list, has a definite idea on how a board should function . "A board is set up to insure that the school is providing the most comprehensive all around education for the student so he/she
is knowledgeable in all he/she can function
areas, so in overall
society today."
"A board should be well
organized so they can give parents detailed responses to their concerns, and in turn parents can understand what the board has to deal with. When complaints are made, there must be documented evidence, hearsay can't be accepted. There must be systems set up within the system to deal with all problems. Mechanisms and evaluations should be set up. People tend to forget rules and regulations, but if it's not followed and there's no communication between the board and the people,
of course there's going to, be dissension."
"Board memhers are there to
make sure the best education is
being provided to all students in the
school. But there has to be
guidelines for everything, because
that's what helps in all the decisions
that are made."
"Community needs to support the educational system, and the educational system needs to support the community in order to get the end result of providing a comprehensive education to all students," Ms. Dumont feels.
Will an Indian on the school board in Wolf Point benefit Indian parents and students? "To an extent it would because he or she could serve as the laison between the Indian community and the school board. However, the school board also has the JOM and the Indian Education Committees to help them know the Indian community concerns."
A graduate of Wolf Point High School, Ms. Dumont attended one year at the Haskell Institute ( now the Haskell Indian Junior College) in Lawrence, Kansas where she received business and secretarial training. She then worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs for 14 years.
In 1971, she went back to school and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, in Education Administration.
Ms. Dumont was a former director of the Native American committee of Chicago, a new program whose philosophy and objective was to adhere to meeting educational needs of the Indian community. She was a part of the development of an alternative In
BROCKTON � The school with the smallest student enrollment on
the reservation has the largest number of school board candidates seeking election to the three trustee seats vacated by the March 1 resignation of all three former school trustees. Brockton school, with an enrollment of around 144 students, was the scene of unrest recently and the newly elected members may have to deal with remaining questions and concerns.
A total of 10 candidates are running for the Brockton School Board, including two of the former trustees who resigned under pressure brought about by the student and parent protest.
Four candidates are seeking election to the one 3-year term: Mike Boyd, Evron Davis, Crystal Moran and Adrian Spotted Bird Sr. Three candidates are running for the one-2-year term: Gerald Lambert, a former trustee; Carol Webster; and Clarice White Cloud. Three candidates are running for the one 1-year term: Aurelia Bets His Medicine, Alpheus Bighorn Jr., the former school board chairman ; and Robert Youpee.
On Feb. 18, 19 and 20 students and community members marched against the school board's action of Feb. 14 in which Indian faculty member Tex Hall was relieved of his duties as the school's athletic director, boys basketball coach and
principal. The board's action was taken because they said he missed too many school in-service training. The board retained Hall as a history teacher.
The protest led to not only the school's closure on Feb. 21 and 22 because of lack of students, but also to the suspension of the three-member school board by the Roosevelt County Commissioners as a result of a 10-item complaint filed by the "Concerned Parents of Ft. Kipp, Brockton and Riverside".
A special public hearing was held March 1 at the Roosevelt County Courthouse before the County Commissioners to determine if the suspension would resume and to
dian high school, and alternative
grade school and a basis education i00j< into tne � charges. After only
program which still exists today. one witness took the stand, School
She was former director of a Superintendent Don Volswagel,
Talent Search and Upward Bound ancj before any cross-examinations
programs, in Chicago; was Ad- could ^ ,ace
ministrative Assistant to the . ,
111 13 Chairman Alpheus Bighorn Jr.,
(Page 2 - Dumont) resigned. Not satisfied with the
resignation of just one member, the "Concerned Parents" pushed for and received the resignations of the other two members � Gerald "Geish" Lambert and Gary James Melbourne.
The school board members said they decided to resign because they wanted to see the protest end and the students back in school.
While the "Concerned Parents" were victorious in their move to have the entire Brockton School Board replaced due to the 10 charges against the board, they feel those charges have not been adequately looked into and answered.
County Attorney James McCann notified the trustees that because their Feb. 14 meeting violated several open meeting laws, the action taken at that meeting is invalid; therefore, Hall's dismissal is also invalid.
These violations included failure to give 48 hours notice of a special meeting, failure to post notice of said meeting in two public places and failure to state the reason for the meeting.
Hall and, Ken Hall his cousin and fellow faculty member, officially resigned from the Brockton School on February 20.
Terms of their resignations included receiving full salaries for the rest of the year, according to an agreement with the school board. Tex Hall's annual salary was $35,000 and Ken Hall's annual salary was $15,800.
The "Concerned Parents" say since the special meeting of Feb. 20 was not properly advertised, the resignations are not official and the former school board members are personally responsible for replacing those school funds used to pay off the two former faculty members. The new, temporary school board had on its' March Meeting agenda to officially accept the Hall's resignations, but this was objected to and halted before it could be carried out.
The "Concerned Parents" refer to "School Laws of Montana" to base their concern, section 20-3-332: "The trustees of each district shall be responsible for the proper administration and utilization of all money of the district in accordance with the provisions of law in this title. Failure on refusal to do so
shall constitute grounds for removal , from office. Those'frustees consenting to illegal use of money shall be jointly and individually liable to the district for any losses the district has realized."
This may be one of the issues that the new Brockton school board members may be faced with.
Registered voters for Brockton School District 55 and 55C school board election can vote from 12 noon to 8 p.m. at the Brockton High School.
The following candidates were the only ones the Wotanin was able to reach for this special school board issue. It is regrettable that all candidates were not reached and able to give the voters an opportunity to read their views.
The following candidates were all asked the same questions: 1. What are your reasons for running for the school board? 2. What are your qualifications? What do you feel you can contribute to the school board? 3. What do you think about the Brockton School educational system and are you familiar with it? What are the issues and concerns that need to be dealt with in order to provide a good education for all students? 4. Educational and personal background and experience?
ALPHEUS BIGHORN
The former Brockton School Board Chairman Alpheus "Sonny" Bighorn is seeking re-election to the school board because he wants to see a good education provided to all students, he said in a recent telephone interview.
"We've got to get the best
Continued P9- 2

Special School board issue
Assiniboine
Sioux
School board elections will be held across the reservation tomorrow, April 2. Polls open in each community at 12 noon and close at 8 p.m.
This year, there has been recent unrest between the school boards and the communities of Brockton and Poplar. Community and student protest shut down the
Brockton school for 2 days In February and the 3-member school board resigned. At Poplar, the community has been meeting with the school board in an attempt to resolve the high number of suspensions.
At Wolf Point, there Is one highly qualified Indian candidate In the running for one of
two positions opening within the Wolf Point school district.
In Frazer, all appears to be well as there are only two candidates running for two openings.
In the special Issue, the Wotanin hopes to present the readers, who are also voters In the school elections, a better view of the candidates they will be voting for tomorrow.
APRIL 1.1985
SPECIAL ISSUE
"Crisis" time at Poplar
Indian Students on reservation
POPLAR-Education for Indian students in the Poplar School system has reached a "crisis" point, according to Poplar Community Chairman Ray White, and now is the time to do something about It.
In response to this "crisis", the Poplar Indian Community Organization has gone on record to officially support two Indian candidates for the two school board seats that are up for election tomorrow, April 2. From a field of six persons nominated at large during an emergency March 6 Poplar Community meeting, Indian businessman Eugene Culbertson and Ft. Peck Community College President Dr. James Shanley were selected by secret ballot as the candidates. Both are tribal members.
The Poplar Community, in a controversial move, requested and
received $350.00 from the Ft. Peck Tribes for campaign costs for the two candidates Culbertson and Shanley. According to White, the funds will not be used to promote the other two Indian candidates running for Poplar school board. The Tribal Executive Board left the decision on how to spend the money at the discretion of the Poplar Community Organization, who made the formal request for the funds. White said a list on how the money was spent will be provided.
A special community meeting and rally for the candidates will be held tonight, April 1, at the Poplar Activity Center at 7 p.m.
Rides will be provided to the polls on April 2. Polls open at 12 noon to 8 p.m. at the Poplar High School. Rides will be provided to the polls if 768-5595 and 5127 is called.
According to a list of registered voters provided by the Roosevelt County Clerk and Recorders Office, about 467 Indian persons are
registered to vote in the Poplar school board election.
With Indian students making up 80 percent of Poplar School system and with three of the five school board seats already filled with non-Indian members, Poplar Com-
munity wants to see the two seats that are up for election to be filled by Indian people. "We need an advocate on the board that understands the situation of Indian students and will try to keep them
(Page 2 - Crisis)
Suspension on the rise
There has been an average of 12 cases a month in which kids are suspended or expelled, and "that's a lot of kids" Tribal Juvenile Judge Tom McAnally said. "From a judge's point, I'm hearing a lot more out-of-school truancies this year than any other time" McAnally said.
The Juvenile Department is getting daily reports on kids suspended or in In-School Suspension (ISS), he said. Under the Tribes' Law and Order Code, if a student is suspended or expelled, the Court must be notified, McAnally said.
The Tribes Health, Education and Welfare Committee, after hearing an oral report from Judge McAnally, sent him and Committee chairman Ken Smoker, Jr. to the Feb. 25 school board meeting to ask cooperation to keep the kids in school rather than to "kick them out" said McAnally, who has been to almost every school board meeting in the last two or three months regarding expulsions. Since then, "The majority of the children are kept in school" he said.
There are 154 students in out-of-school suspension this year in Poplar's Middle School, which is grades 5th to 8th, McAnally said. Broken down to grade levels, there were eight 5th-graders, twenty-two 6th-graders, seventeen 7th-graders, and sixteen 8th-graders. Fourteen of these students were
suspended four or more times, he said. The statistics are from the beginning of this year to March 5, 1985, according to McAnally.
In statistics provided by the Poplar School's new Home-School Coordinator Marshelle Lambert, there has been only one expulsion from Poplar High School since the beginning of the school year. There were over 60 students suspended for two to three days since October, 1984, she stated. A student must be suspended three times before being expelled, according to the School's Attendance and Discipline Policy.
One good thing that has happened from the meetings, McAnally said, is that the Poplar Schools hired the second home-school coordinator, Mrs. Lambert, a former tribal juvenile worker, was hired to work with the Middle and High School students, Indian and non-Indian that do not show up for school. "This has helped" Judge McAnally said.
The TribaJ Juvenile.Ow* v,:'1 Ko filing a complaint against parents in school expulsion cases in which the parents are found to be at fault, McAnally reported.
The complaint will be filed for violation of the Tribal Code, which states an Indian family must send their children to school until they reach 16 years of age, and this is a family responsibility that has to be lived up to, he said.
(NOTE: The following article was produced by the Ft. Peck Community College in October, 1984.)
The statistics on the K-12 population on the Fort Peck Reservation indicate that our school systems have some serious problems. Reservation-wide, there are only 36 senior Indian students although there are 154 students in the ninth grade. If the school populations have been fairly constant, that means that only 23% of the Indian students that start high school make it to their senior year with even less probably graduating.
In Brockton 21% make it to the 12th grade; in Poplar, 26%; in Wolf Point, 22%; in Frazer, 17.6%. The greatest decline in numbers takes place between the 9th and 11th grades or between the Freshman and Junior year in high school.
These figures are somewhat misleading because a number of students attend boarding schools each year. During the 1984/85 school year, the Bureau of Indian Affairs reports that 42 high school students and 25 elementary students went away to Boarding school at Flandreau, Chemawa, Wahpeton and Riverside Boarding Schools.
(Page 3 � Statistics
FORT PECK TRIBES K-12 POPULATION
The following Is the compilation of data collected by the Fort Peck Community College on the K-12 student population Is public schools on the Fort Peck Asslnlbolne/Sloux Reservation.
STUDENTS BROCKTON POPLAB KINDERGARTEN
WOLF POINT FRAZER TOTA�
'Indian 10
Non-Indian 0
Grades 1-8
Indian 82
Non-Indian 4
Grades 9-12
Indian 48
Non-Indian 0
TOTAL SCHOOL 144
POPULATION
Seniors
Indian 4
Non-Indian 0
1984 Graduating Class Indian 6
Non-Indian 0
No. of Teachers
Indian 2
Non-Indian 16
Other Professionals Indian 1
Non-Indian 3
Teacher Aides
Indian 1
Non-Indian 1
69 13
481
105
134
60
86?
17 13
19
7
4
54
15 4
56 48
294 337
101 192 1028
12 51
12 43
2 44
3 15
96 0
50 0 165
3 0
3 20
154 61
�
953 446
333 252 2199
36 64
40
50
11 138
7 30
22 12
('Indian identification is based upon title IV identification and is not separated by blood quantum or tribal membership.)
Smallest school, most candidates
Indian Candidate is role model
NANCY DUMONT, the only Indian school board candidate in Wolf Point, has a solid background in community development, education and administration. Her productive career could serve as a role model for Indian students in that there are no limits to what one can achieve with education.
"I am a firm believer in education" Ms. Dumont said. Raised on the Ft. Peck Reservation, she said her parents instilled in her the importance of getting an education. Her parents have done a very commendable job - Ms. Dumont, afterworking in secretarial positions for 14 years in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, went on to earn a Masters Degree from the academically prestigious University of Chicago in 1982.
Ms. Dumont is presently employed by the Ft. Peck Tribes as director of Education and Career Opportunity Services, a program she helped develop that serves people of all ages who are interested and need assistance in continuing their education and furthering their careers. Formerly a state funded program that was called Talent Search, ECOS is now fully tribally funded, administers tribal education grants, assists people in processing the necessary paperwork to get into any type of educational facility, as well as providing career counseling.
Ms. Dumont, who has served on educational boards and councils too numerous to list, has a definite idea on how a board should function . "A board is set up to insure that the school is providing the most comprehensive all around education for the student so he/she
is knowledgeable in all he/she can function
areas, so in overall
society today."
"A board should be well
organized so they can give parents detailed responses to their concerns, and in turn parents can understand what the board has to deal with. When complaints are made, there must be documented evidence, hearsay can't be accepted. There must be systems set up within the system to deal with all problems. Mechanisms and evaluations should be set up. People tend to forget rules and regulations, but if it's not followed and there's no communication between the board and the people,
of course there's going to, be dissension."
"Board memhers are there to
make sure the best education is
being provided to all students in the
school. But there has to be
guidelines for everything, because
that's what helps in all the decisions
that are made."
"Community needs to support the educational system, and the educational system needs to support the community in order to get the end result of providing a comprehensive education to all students" Ms. Dumont feels.
Will an Indian on the school board in Wolf Point benefit Indian parents and students? "To an extent it would because he or she could serve as the laison between the Indian community and the school board. However, the school board also has the JOM and the Indian Education Committees to help them know the Indian community concerns."
A graduate of Wolf Point High School, Ms. Dumont attended one year at the Haskell Institute ( now the Haskell Indian Junior College) in Lawrence, Kansas where she received business and secretarial training. She then worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs for 14 years.
In 1971, she went back to school and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, in Education Administration.
Ms. Dumont was a former director of the Native American committee of Chicago, a new program whose philosophy and objective was to adhere to meeting educational needs of the Indian community. She was a part of the development of an alternative In
BROCKTON � The school with the smallest student enrollment on
the reservation has the largest number of school board candidates seeking election to the three trustee seats vacated by the March 1 resignation of all three former school trustees. Brockton school, with an enrollment of around 144 students, was the scene of unrest recently and the newly elected members may have to deal with remaining questions and concerns.
A total of 10 candidates are running for the Brockton School Board, including two of the former trustees who resigned under pressure brought about by the student and parent protest.
Four candidates are seeking election to the one 3-year term: Mike Boyd, Evron Davis, Crystal Moran and Adrian Spotted Bird Sr. Three candidates are running for the one-2-year term: Gerald Lambert, a former trustee; Carol Webster; and Clarice White Cloud. Three candidates are running for the one 1-year term: Aurelia Bets His Medicine, Alpheus Bighorn Jr., the former school board chairman ; and Robert Youpee.
On Feb. 18, 19 and 20 students and community members marched against the school board's action of Feb. 14 in which Indian faculty member Tex Hall was relieved of his duties as the school's athletic director, boys basketball coach and
principal. The board's action was taken because they said he missed too many school in-service training. The board retained Hall as a history teacher.
The protest led to not only the school's closure on Feb. 21 and 22 because of lack of students, but also to the suspension of the three-member school board by the Roosevelt County Commissioners as a result of a 10-item complaint filed by the "Concerned Parents of Ft. Kipp, Brockton and Riverside".
A special public hearing was held March 1 at the Roosevelt County Courthouse before the County Commissioners to determine if the suspension would resume and to
dian high school, and alternative
grade school and a basis education i00j< into tne � charges. After only
program which still exists today. one witness took the stand, School
She was former director of a Superintendent Don Volswagel,
Talent Search and Upward Bound ancj before any cross-examinations
programs, in Chicago; was Ad- could ^ ,ace
ministrative Assistant to the . ,
111 13 Chairman Alpheus Bighorn Jr.,
(Page 2 - Dumont) resigned. Not satisfied with the
resignation of just one member, the "Concerned Parents" pushed for and received the resignations of the other two members � Gerald "Geish" Lambert and Gary James Melbourne.
The school board members said they decided to resign because they wanted to see the protest end and the students back in school.
While the "Concerned Parents" were victorious in their move to have the entire Brockton School Board replaced due to the 10 charges against the board, they feel those charges have not been adequately looked into and answered.
County Attorney James McCann notified the trustees that because their Feb. 14 meeting violated several open meeting laws, the action taken at that meeting is invalid; therefore, Hall's dismissal is also invalid.
These violations included failure to give 48 hours notice of a special meeting, failure to post notice of said meeting in two public places and failure to state the reason for the meeting.
Hall and, Ken Hall his cousin and fellow faculty member, officially resigned from the Brockton School on February 20.
Terms of their resignations included receiving full salaries for the rest of the year, according to an agreement with the school board. Tex Hall's annual salary was $35,000 and Ken Hall's annual salary was $15,800.
The "Concerned Parents" say since the special meeting of Feb. 20 was not properly advertised, the resignations are not official and the former school board members are personally responsible for replacing those school funds used to pay off the two former faculty members. The new, temporary school board had on its' March Meeting agenda to officially accept the Hall's resignations, but this was objected to and halted before it could be carried out.
The "Concerned Parents" refer to "School Laws of Montana" to base their concern, section 20-3-332: "The trustees of each district shall be responsible for the proper administration and utilization of all money of the district in accordance with the provisions of law in this title. Failure on refusal to do so
shall constitute grounds for removal , from office. Those'frustees consenting to illegal use of money shall be jointly and individually liable to the district for any losses the district has realized."
This may be one of the issues that the new Brockton school board members may be faced with.
Registered voters for Brockton School District 55 and 55C school board election can vote from 12 noon to 8 p.m. at the Brockton High School.
The following candidates were the only ones the Wotanin was able to reach for this special school board issue. It is regrettable that all candidates were not reached and able to give the voters an opportunity to read their views.
The following candidates were all asked the same questions: 1. What are your reasons for running for the school board? 2. What are your qualifications? What do you feel you can contribute to the school board? 3. What do you think about the Brockton School educational system and are you familiar with it? What are the issues and concerns that need to be dealt with in order to provide a good education for all students? 4. Educational and personal background and experience?
ALPHEUS BIGHORN
The former Brockton School Board Chairman Alpheus "Sonny" Bighorn is seeking re-election to the school board because he wants to see a good education provided to all students, he said in a recent telephone interview.
"We've got to get the best
Continued P9- 2